


I'll give you a moment

by BrilliantlyHorrid



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Confusion, F/M, Feelings, Fluff, Phil Coulson is a baby deer, Sequel time!, Seriously read the first one first because it's gonna be confusing, SkoulsonRomfest2k16REDUX
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-22
Updated: 2016-07-22
Packaged: 2018-07-25 23:31:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7551376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrilliantlyHorrid/pseuds/BrilliantlyHorrid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was...odd. Thinking about him and Daisy like that. But was it such a terrible picture? Sure, it wasn’t the first thing he’d imagine, but that was because before now it seemed entirely impossible. </p><p>‘I’m not exactly the kind of person to rule anything out,’ she’d told him.</p><p>Since when was he?</p><p>SkoulsonFest2k16 Redux--Day 4: Unconditional<br/>Sequel to "I don't know what's happening (but I know you)"</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'll give you a moment

**Author's Note:**

> So as it says in the summary this is a FOLLOW UP to my story "I don't know what's happening (but I know you)" from this year's previous SkoulsonFest. Please read that one if you haven't because otherwise this will make NO SENSE
> 
> http://archiveofourown.org/works/5760475/chapters/13272997

“Sir?”

Phil sat up straighter, looking at the door to his office. “Agent Gutierrez,” he said, waving Joey in the door.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt your...thinking,” Joey said, and Phil knew he was being generous. Then again, ‘sorry for interrupting your blank staring’ wasn’t exactly the best thing to say to your boss so he may have just been smart.

“Not at all,” Coulson said, gesturing for Joey to sit down. “What can I do for you?”

“Daisy asked me to grab a flash drive from you?” He asked, pointing his thumb out the door behind him. “They’re actually waiting for me in the lab, we’re going over the specs for tomorrow.”

“Right, of course,” Phil said, shaking his head.

Daisy sent him.

Didn’t stop by herself.

He grabbed the aforementioned drive from his desk. “Here you go, should have everything on it.”

“Thanks,” Joey said, turning back to leave. He hesitated. “Sir?”

Phil raised an eyebrow, curious. “Gutierrez?”

“It’s just-- nevermind,” he said, waving the issue away.

“Let me know if you have any other questions,” Phil told him. He didn’t want to press, especially since he had an inkling about what Joey was going to ask.

Phil leaned back in his chair as the door closed, hands over his face. What was he going to do? Things at the base had been...uncomfortable. And now the rest of the team was picking up on it. He was trying, he really was, but he was struggling to act normal around Daisy after everything. And _she_ picked up on it, of course, he could see it in the panicking puppy dog look on her face whenever she felt like she had invaded his space or asserted her presence while he was… thinking.

He was thinking a lot these days.

He had always (maybe not always) assumed his and Daisy’s relationship fit a certain mold. Everyone else seemed to think so, so after getting his head together and getting over any initial _feelings_ he might have had about Daisy, feelings that cause him to do things like flirt over his flying car or relationships, he tried to look at the young woman the way a responsible older person should. (But he would still bristle at that word. _Older_.) He did, when attention was called to it, but other than that he was content knowing that he was Coulson and she was Skye--now Daisy-- and they just _were._

But now...after what she had seen and _lived_ , could he still be content with his old way of looking at it?

A knock at his door startled him, and for a second he wondered if it was Daisy, if she was finally going to talk about _it._ He was slightly terrified.

But it wasn’t her.

“Coulson,” May greeted, and Phil waved her in. It was May, his old friend, nothing new or scary or confusing there, right? His relief faltered a bit when he saw her face. “We need to talk.”

He gulped.

 ***

Phil was happy. Extraordinarily happy. “Weirdly happy,” May would say. Well, she did say that, but he couldn’t help it.

 _Finally_. He’d missed it the first time around, but unless the world went to hell (again, which he couldn’t necessarily rule out,) he was going to be there.

“Heard the good news,” Daisy said, walking into his office. Phil was surprised, he doubted he’d see her before she left the following day. “So, are you her man of honor?” She asked, smirking in a way that almost seemed normal.

“Oh no, I don’t think-- it’s up to her. I mean, I would be happy to--” Phil shook his head, annoyed at Daisy’s growing amusement. “I’m sure she has other options,” he finished, raising an eyebrow.

“What, me? I think it’s more likely they’d elope than that,” she said, and Phil’s face must have dropped. “Oh, they won’t though, I’m sure. You’d probably hunt them down.”

“I would not,” Coulson said dismissively. _Because they won’t elope, so I won’t have to_. Daisy chuckled at his state, and Coulson could almost believe things were normal between them. Nothing strange, like her possibly having _feelings_ about him. Feelings he wasn’t sure he knew what to do with.

“I’m sure it will be a big affair, May doesn’t seem like it but she loves parties.”

Daisy’s eyebrows flew up. “Seriously?”

Coulson nodded. “Sappy music, big dress, fancy venue. I’m pretty sure she regrets that she didn’t do that the first time around.”

Daisy shook her head in disbelief. “Wow, now I really hope they don’t run off, that sounds amazing. You think she’ll go all out?” Daisy leaned back against his desk, peering at some files he’d left open. They weren’t confidential, at least not for her eyes, so he let her look.

“Live band, the works,” he said, smirking. “Open bar if we’re lucky.”

“Careful,” Daisy said absently, flipping through the files, “that’s how I got pregnant.”

She froze.

Phil cleared his throat, looking over at the wall as if there was something terribly interesting there. “Uh,” he began eloquently, but Daisy shook her head.

“Sorry, I--I didn’t think--”

She looked so distressed, Phil’s heart hurt a little bit.

He tried to remind himself that she was there for days, that this was all very real to her. Maybe she needed to talk about it, and they hadn’t exactly shared the details with the rest of the team. Phil cleared his throat.

“Over _there_ ,” he confirmed, and Daisy looked a bit surprised before nodding. “May and Andrew’s?” She shook her head, an odd expression on her face.

“Jemma and Trip,” she said, and Phil blinked. Or maybe he had shut his eyes for a moment, he wasn’t sure. “I guess it was _quite_ the party,” she said wryly, twisting her fingers into the sleeves of her sweater.

“I bet,” Coulson said fondly, trying to picture it. _Simmons and Trip, not…_ “And _he_ told you this?”

Daisy smiled, a cautious, careful smile he was familiar with. “Yeah, on the last day we spent a lot of time trying to figure things out, and I guess catch each other up. It took a while to get that answer though,” she said, standing back up from the desk. “He wasn’t exactly eager to give me details.”

“No I’d imagine not,” Coulson joked, sort of. It was...odd. Thinking about him and Daisy like that. He would have thought that...well, there were a few other relationships he would have considered them having in an alternate reality first, to be honest. _Before_.

But was it such a terrible picture? Him and Daisy and a baby? The abstract idea of a family had always been something he’d wanted, and while he didn’t share the connection Daisy had had with the child over there, the idea still appealed to him. Sure, it wasn’t the first thing he’d imagine, but that was because before now it seemed entirely impossible. More than just a different dimension, a complete unlikelihood in their own world.

 _‘I’m not exactly the kind of person to rule anything out,’_ she’d told him.

Since when was he?

***

“Agent Rodriguez,” Phil greeted over the phone. The ‘warriors’ were out on their surveillance mission, watching some possible Inhuman activity in the Caribbean.

 _‘It’s not a vacation,’_ Daisy had reminded the remaining grounded agents approximately a million times. Phil understood the frustration to a degree; the Playground wasn’t exactly in a tropical climate. But Daisy was right. Being Inhuman in public? And organized? Definitely not a vacation. More of a “gigantic risk.”

“Can I speak to Agent Johnson please?” Coulson asked, tapping at his console to bring the map onto his screen with one hand, bringing his coffee mug to his lips with the other.

“Yes sir,” Yo Yo answered, then Coulson heard her say faintly, as she presumably handed off the phone: _“Su esposo.”_ He nearly choked on his coffee.

 _“Thanks,”_ Daisy’s muffled voice said, and Phil wondered if she was covering the receiver. “Sir,” she said more clearly, and he straightened up.

How long had _that_ had been going on?

“Daisy,” he responded, trying to sound normal. Could one even _try_ to sound normal? In front of him, the map on the screen started to zoom in rapidly and blink on and off. He pulled his hand off of the controls, where he’d unknowingly been applying a not-insignificant amount of pressure. _Get it together._ “How is it going?”

“Uneventful so far, which I guess is a good thing.” He heard a van door slide shut, and the echo that had been around her disappeared.

“Taking a walk?” He asked, amused.

“Wouldn’t you?” Daisy asked. “I’ve been sitting in that van for two hours.”

“The perfect weather can’t hurt either,” Coulson said, leaning back in his chair.

“Yeah, no it does not,” Daisy said, and he could practically picture her stretching in the sunshine, getting the kinks out of her back from sitting in a confined space for hours. “It’s _really_ nice, I might suggest this place to May and Andrew for a honeymoon spot? You know, if we don’t cause too much chaos.”

“Not a bad idea,” Phil said.

”Don’t worry, we’re all taking turns taking breaks. I’m not a monster hogging all the sunshine.”

Coulson raised an eyebrow. “I don’t doubt it.” In fact, he half expected her to let Joey and Elena take all the time they need out, not stepping foot outside herself until the mission was over.

They discussed logistics for a bit, potential extraction plans if things went south, a possible extension of the trip in case they didn’t find anything soon. (Phil would prefer neither of those things be necessary, but it was Daisy’s mission and he didn’t want to be a spoil sport so he kept his mouth shut.)

She had started to walk back to the van and Coulson could tell she was going to start saying her goodbyes. Logically he knew that she needed to get back to work. So did he, for that matter.

But…

“So I see you told Agent Rodriguez,” he said suddenly, _casually._  Not bothered at all.

“Told her what?” Daisy asked without hesitation. Coulson frowned.

“About…” How did he put this?

“...Phil?”

He sighed, relieved he didn’t have to be the one to say it. “Yes,” he said.

“Yes what?” Daisy asked, sounding genuinely confused. Coulson covered his eyes with his hand.

“Yes, about... _Phil_.”

_This is going well._

“Abou--oh. _Oh_ ,” Daisy finally said, and he wondered what sort of face she was making now. “But no, I didn’t. I haven’t told anyone,” she explained, curious. “Wait, have you?”

“What? No, of course not,” Phil said, flustered. On the other end, Daisy sighed.

“Yeah, of course not,” she muttered. “Wait why did you think I told Yo Yo?”

“Why did she call me your husband?” Phil asked, exasperated.

“My _what?_ ” He heard a groaning noise. “ _Elenaaa._ ”

Despite himself, Phil could feel amusement bubbling up inside of him. “What did she tell you that meant?” He asked, wondering if he’d need to have a talk about communication with his agents.

“ _They_ said it meant ‘boss,’” Daisy explained brusquely, and Phil made a face.

“ _Esposo,_ like spouse,” he recited. “You didn’t know how to say boss?”

“They said it was slang,” she said, sounding irritated. “Like ‘boss man,’ or--I’m trying, okay?”

Phil winced, feeling guilty. “No, I didn’t mean to-- Wait, who’s _they_?”

“Yo Yo, Joey. Mack,” Daisy practically growled, and Phil’s eyebrows shot up.

_How deep does this thing go?_

“Jeez,” he sighed, and Daisy made an agreeing noise on the other end of the call.

“Yeah, sorry about that. God, I think I’ve said it in front of Piper too. No wonder she looked at me funny.”

Phil couldn’t help it, a quick laugh escaped. What a mess. “Yes, well, I’ll have a chat with Agents Rodriguez, Gutierrez and Mackenzie,” he said.

“Good,” Daisy replied emphatically. They sat in comfortable silence then, he listened to the sounds of her walking through sand. If he tried really hard, he could hear the waves of a nearby beach. Maybe he was just making that up.

It was _nice_ , this kind of thing. Would this be something _Phil and Daisy_ would do? It wasn’t so terrible and weird, not at all. And if he thought about it, this kind of behavior wasn’t exactly new. He hadn’t looked at it that way before (because it seemed ridiculous, not that he could ever tell her that,) but some of the things they did...did they act married already?

“Wait, how long have they been calling me that?”

Daisy paused. “Break’s over, we’ll touch base again soon!”

***

Daisy looked up from her laptop as Coulson walked through the door to the common room. “You’re up late,” she observed, pulling her feet up closer so she wasn’t taking up the whole couch. She wasn’t one to talk, but they had flown back earlier that day and her internal clock was off.

Coulson made some tired gesture with his hand, flopping on the couch next to her. Daisy watched him, amused. He looked like he had just rolled out of bed, an odd choice at...three in the morning. “Hey are you okay?”

Coulson nodded and ran a hand over his face tiredly. “Yeah, just…” he trailed off, looking over at her. “Weird dreams.”

Daisy nodded, closing her laptop and sitting up straighter. “Nightmares?”

Coulson gave a funny little shake of his head, not making eye contact. “Not quite.”

Pretending she understood what that meant, Daisy grabbed the remote and turned the TV on. “What do you think? History Channel? They’ve been doing a retrospective about Captain America recently.” She smirked. “Guess we can see where the History Channel stands in the _debate_.” Coulson just nodded vaguely and Daisy turned the volume up. She watched the screen as long as she could, all the while feeling his gaze on her.

Daisy was a perceptive girl, she knew that Coulson needed some time to process after she told him about everything. Which was fine, because she obviously needed some time as well. She could never tell him, would never want to pressure him, but it was so incredibly _frustrating_. She thought once the experience wore off, once she was back home, she would get back to normal. But being back around this version of Coulson only reminded her what was so special about him. And the fact that she might want those things she had there, but with him.

But he needed time. And maybe he wouldn’t want the same thing, and that would be fine. She would just spend the rest of her life knowing almost exactly what she was missing. “Are you sure you’re okay?” Daisy asked, desperate to get out of her own head. In a surprising decision he moved closer, until his knees were almost touching hers. “Coulson?”

Daisy tried to figure out what was going on, but there was too much tiredness and confusion on his face for her to even guess. Was he sleepwalking?

“When you were over _there_ ,” he began, looking slightly nervous, “you didn’t tell him who you were for the first couple days, right?” Daisy nodded. “So at no point during that time, the two of you…” he trailed off, but didn’t look away.

“We kissed,” she admitted, still feeling a little guilty about it. “Just once.” Daisy wasn’t sure what she felt worse about, letting Phil unknowingly make out with a stranger on his couch or making him worry about his wife suddenly distancing herself from him for almost two full days. Both. She felt very bad about both.

“Right,” Coulson said, looking slightly startled. But for someone who didn’t seem like he wanted to be there, he was certainly pushing onward. “Wasn’t that weird?”

Daisy’s brow furrowed. “Was it weird kissing an alternate universe version of you who was also the alternate version of me’s husband? I mean, you do the math, Coulson.”

Coulson nodded in a way that felt _way_ too accepting of that explanation and Daisy felt an undercurrent of panic. “I’m not being very helpful right now,” she said, “let me give that another try.”  Coulson cautiously looked her in the eye, between glances at the nearest exit. “Yes, it was weird because he was you, but also he wasn’t, and he thought I was not...me.” She began, wrinkling her nose at how convoluted it sounded. “And he just put ‘our’ baby to bed, so yeah, it was kind of weird.”

Coulson nodded as if she were making all the sense in the world.

“But,” Daisy added, and he seemed to perk up a little bit. “The kissing itself was...nice.”

“It was?”

Daisy couldn’t help but smile a bit. “Yeah. Kind of caught me off guard, but yeah,” she said, turning to face him fully. He still looked nervous, but intrigued, which Daisy took as a good sign. She never wanted to push him on this, but he was asking, so...“So, it wasn’t like a big dramatic deal or anything. I was folding laundry on the couch and he came over and put his arm around me,” she recalled, putting an arm around his shoulder to demonstrate.

“Then what?”

She wasn’t sure the signs got better than that. “Well, then he sort of--” she leaned in, pressing her lips to his neck, below his jaw. Coulson jumped a little bit, making Daisy wonder if he knew how it played out after all. “I was surprised, because, well, you know,” she said, and felt him gulp.

“...And?”

She smiled against the skin of his throat, then pulled away, not missing his little sigh of disappointment. Daisy didn’t overlook the hypocrisy in feeling guilty over the kiss and also replaying it over and over again in her mind. And while there was no deception involved this time around, Daisy still hesitated at a _full_ re-enactment. Sure, Coulson didn’t look like he was going to take off running any time soon, but what if, apart from the initial excitement, he wasn’t into it for the long term?

Not that she was expecting him to marry her, but besides the _Phil Indiscretion_ , it had been a long time for both of them since anything physical had taken place. Maybe, once they kissed, he would be weirded out, or there wouldn’t be fireworks and that would somehow indicate that this was wrong instead of maybe just not being a perfect first kiss. There was a lot of pressure on her all of a sudden, and it wasn’t even _their_ kiss, it was just a copy.

_But while we’re here..._

“So then he kissed me,” Daisy said, “and we sort of--” she pushed down on his shoulder, indicating that he should lie back. For a second she wondered if he would go for it, or if she was crossing a line here. But after a moment Coulson followed her lead, pulling his legs up on the couch so she could settle between them, lying on top of his chest. She could feel his heart beating, quickly like a little rabbit’s.

“I did that?” He asked, sounding surprised by _his_ actions. Daisy tilted her head.

“Phil did,” she corrected, watching a little too fascinated as Coulson wet his lips and nodded profusely.

“Right, right, him.”

Daisy smiled, running her hands through the short hair at the back of his neck. “Then there was more kissing,” she said, reaching down and moving his hands to cup her face. Coulson took to that immediately, stroking her cheek with his thumb a little curiously. He’d touched her face before, so she imagined this was the most familiar part for him.

“And _then_ I stopped and said, ‘honey I have a headache, maybe some other night,’” Daisy joked, trying to lighten the mood a bit because that’s what she did when things got intense.

“Then w-- you stopped,” he repeated, one of his hands moving to comb through her hair thoughtlessly.

“Then we stopped, and then we folded baby clothes and then we went to bed. To _sleep_ ,” she added unnecessarily. “Then I told him I was from a different universe and there was no more kissing after that.”

Coulson nodded again, hand still threading through her hair. “So,” Daisy began, feeling encouraged. “This isn’t too bad, right?”

Phil shook his head, but didn’t say anything else.

***

A particularly loud infomercial startled Phil into wakefulness, the blaring TV cutting through his otherwise undisturbed sleep. Squinting at the television he tried to reach for the remote on the coffee table, but found he was unable to move his arm. He panicked for just a moment, remembering it was his _right_ arm just before looking down at his chest to see the obstruction.

“Daisy,” he muttered, trying to pull his arm out from under her. Judging from the faint light in the halls and the ridiculous ads on the television, Phil guessed it must have been sometime in the early hours of the morning. On top of him, Daisy made some quiet (but very grumpy) growly noises before reaching out aggressively for the remote herself. Clicking the TV off she dropped the remote on the floor and nestled her arm back to its place against Phil’s chest.

“ _Daisy._ ”

Looking up at him blearily, Daisy blinked.

“My arm.”

Lifting herself slightly--and putting way too much pressure on _other_ parts of his body-- Daisy let him pull his arm out from under her chest. Coulson then promptly used it to shift her closer to the side, between him and the back of the couch, further away from...other things.

“Better?” Daisy asked, settling in and draping an arm over his stomach. Phil realized he should  probably have questioned her about how nonchalant she was being about the whole thing. They were in the _common room._ But also he was very comfortable. And this felt...familiar. At least, that’s the impression he got from her.

A strange feeling swept over him. One of _jealousy?_ Of himself? Daisy said she just kissed other Phil the one time, when he apparently crawled on top of her. _That_ was an unexpected visual. But had they done this? Or was it just their own?

How much of him wanting to know about Phil and Daisy 2.0 was curiosity, and how much of it was longing? Did he just want to know what they were like because it was fascinating, or because it was something he wanted?

He didn’t even know how Daisy felt at this point. They were finally spending more time together, so things weren’t as awkward as they had been before, and _clearly_ she had no discomfort being around him. There had been a moment, more than one that he thought she might kiss him but didn’t, so maybe that was a sign she had moved on from the experience. Maybe her feelings about the ordeal were resolved, while he was left with a million questions.

“Sorry,” Daisy said, sleepy. “I’m doing it again, aren’t I?” She began to pull away and Phil had the strangest urge to stop her.

“I wonder what other Daisy would think if she found out you _cuddled_ with the father of her child while she was away,” Coulson joked. Daisy looked at him oddly for a moment but sat up, rubbing at her eyes.

“She’d probably kick my ass,” she grumbled, smiling a little bit.  She stretched her arms above her head and Coulson sat up, scooting back to the end of the couch. At some point in the night she’d had the sense to grab a throw blanket, which still covered their legs in a strangely intimate way. “I think we’d be cool if I talked to her though, she seems like a reasonable person.” She grinned at Coulson, who smiled back fondly. “I’d just explain it to her, she’d know it didn’t mean anything.”

The chuckle that came out of his mouth was too quick, too forced, Phil knew it the second he heard it.

Daisy did too, if her wide eyes and panicked expression were any indication. He knew Daisy didn’t want to hurt him, and he regretted how easy he was for her to read.

“No, no,” Daisy said, reaching over and placing a hand on his arm. “That’s not--”

“Daisy, it’s fine,” Phil said, trying to look reassuring. It would be selfish of him to expect her to feel that way about him, especially after nearly running away from her since they’d spoken about it.

“No,” she said forcefully, looking at the door of the common room for a moment after realizing how loud she’d been. “That didn’t mean anything because he--well, he _was_ you, technically, but he wasn’t _you._ I’m not making any sense here,” she said, shaking her head. Putting both hands on his shoulders, she looked at him seriously, steeling herself.

“Phil,” she said, and he nodded.

“Daisy.”

“I liked being married to him, you,” she said. “But he wasn’t you, so that just made me want that with _you,_ and after what you said I thought you might...”

“What I said?” Phil asked, confused. A lot was happening here.

“Yeah, I don’t--I just thought that there was a chance that you, you know,” she shrugged. “Could end up falling in love with me too.” An uncharacteristic blush covered her face before she put it in her hands. “I sound _crazy._ ”

Coulson gently pulled her hands away from her face.

“Are you in love with me?” He asked, surprising himself. He was hoping to go for something more nuanced.

Daisy stared at him before shrugging again and looking at the ceiling. “I don’t know, yeah, maybe,” she muttered. Flooded with a somewhat (but not completely) unfamiliar warm feeling, Phil gently turned her face to look at him. She met his eyes, as open as ever. “It just got me thinking that if we can love each other like that even without as much time together, and without the GH serum, and without everything we’ve been through, it must mean something, right? That it could work here too?”

Phil nodded, sighing. “Yeah, I think you’re right,” he said, examining her face. It made sense, that with different circumstances (dare he say easier ones?) the two of them would have an easier time with _this._

“Okay then,” Daisy said, clearing her throat. She took both of his hands in hers and shook them lightly for emphasis. “I’m going to kiss you right now because I want to and I’m pretty sure at this point that you want that too.”

“What gave you that idea?” Phil asked, scooting closer to her.

Daisy laughed, shaking her head for a second before finally leaning in and pressing her lips to his. They were both in their clothes from the night before and probably had morning breath, but Daisy was wrapping a hand around his neck and exploring his mouth with her tongue and Phil was pretty sure it was the best kiss of his life. Suddenly he was able to picture it clearly: an entire life of this. He could cry. How could he have missed out on it before? Daisy’s other hand landed on his knee, and Coulson pulled back.

“Probably shouldn’t do this here,” he said breathlessly, looking at the door. The sun had fully risen by now, it was a miracle no one had walked by. ( _Had_ anyone walked by?) He didn’t want to stop, _really_ didn’t want to stop, but he had to have some semblance of professionalism, right? Or at least etiquette.

Daisy nodded, but looked skeptical. “Five more minutes?” She asked, and the look on her face almost had him. “Three,” she bargained. He waited, wondering how restraint used to be his strong suit at one point in his life. “One?”

Coulson sighed, looking down at his watch. “You have thirty seconds,” he said. “Make them cou--mph!”

She apparently didn’t want to waste more time either.  


End file.
